If you’ve ever worked in any type of business, chances are that they had Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) for at least one area of their business. Now that you are running your own business, you find yourself going through the motions and wondering if you really need to have any type of formal written procedure.

The short answer is no, you don’t NEED a set of procedures. However, not having them can cause issues later on.

Brace yourselves, I’m about to admit something that might make you go, wtf?!

I enjoy cleaning. I enjoy organizing my spaces. I enjoy decluttering.

Crazy, right? I mean, who really enjoys doing those things? I guess, like most things, I more so enjoy the reward from doing those things.

When I walk in the door and my livingroom is spotless, I instantly feel relaxed and happy. On the other hand, if I walk into my bathroom and everything has exploded on the sink, dirty clothes litter the floor, and my husband has seemed to miss the garbage can every single time he attempted to throw away a used q-tip, then I can feel (pretty much instantaneously) my stress level rise. My heart beats faster, I become anxious, stressed, worked up. I don’t even want to walk in there. It’s proven that clutter causes stress and both negatively affect our brains (even our bodies). There is something about a clean, decluttered, organized space that just gives you some strange sense of peace and calm.

So here are the 3 steps to creating a relaxing workspace that will feed your productivity and success.

The other day, I was working on a pretty complex spreadsheet for a client. The kids are all home on Christmas break and the husband even had the week off.

As I was trying to concentrate, the older two started what I’m guessing was a wrestling match upstairs. It sounded like no less than a heard of wild animals running around my house. My husband walked in asking for help on some menial task that didn’t truly require me. Immediately following that the baby grabbed the toddler’s pigtail and pulled hard, causing her to scream and cry and as she pulled away, the baby fell, in turn, causing him to also scream and cry.

I can only describe stress as pressure with your face being the gauge. As the pressure continues to rise, you can actually feel blood rush to your cheeks (feeling warm), you might shake a bit and eventually the alarm (yelling) goes off. I’m guessing thats what I looked like after that morning and I’m guessing many of you have been there too. So what do we do when we feel our stress level rising?

I’m talking with a client of mine the other day, when I bring up an appointment on his calendar that wasn’t there before. He lets me know that someone else added it to his calendar. Not another assistant, not someone he delegated to, but a colleague who took it upon himself to schedule something for my client.

My jaw dropped. Maybe it was a mistake? Maybe he just meant to talk to him about it instead of actually scheduling it?

Nope. This guy actually scheduled a meeting (with a 3rd party) for my client without talking to him first to even see if he was really available. He just added the appointment to his calendar. Didn’t say anything. Just let us see it.

If you know anything about me, you know that I try not to waste money on anything not necessary and do many things myself. But in doing so, I have learned that sometimes I’m not the best person to do the job, especially when its extremely time-consuming for me to do yourself.

I have learned that sometimes I’m not the best person to do the job

Peace of Time is all about productivity. One of the keys to being a successful, productive business owner is to automate anything you can. These days, there are apps for just about everything.

I recently started using Pinterest for more than just my DIY crafts and recipes: to promote my business and blog. I spent hours and hours pinning, repinning, etc. and I thought, “There has to be a better way! A more efficient way!” So, I looked into several apps to help automate, but wasn’t convinced to spend the money yet. Based on many reviews in several groups I’m in, I signed up for a free trial with Tailwind. Even if I chose not to subscribe at the end, at least I could take it a bit easier during December which is already busy with all of the holidays and end-of-the-year things to do.

I’m almost up to the end of my trial version and I will be upgrading to the paid version with no hesitations or regret. In my opinion, it is worth every penny and I will tell you why.

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